Tag Archives: leadership that endures

“Guess what!” said my sister to her six year old son. “You get to have a very special job in Beck and Tim’s wedding. You are going to be a page boy and you will get to wear a suit!”

“Great!” Levi replied. “I’ll wear my Ironman suit!”

My nephew loves Ironman. Every chance he gets he dresses up in his Ironman suit and his whole persona changes. When you ask him what he is going to be when he grows up, the answer is pure and simple. He is going to be Ironman. He once remarked that he would be a coffee maker on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a chiropractor on Fridays, but he would have to wear his suit just in-case.

You just never know when the world will need Ironman, you see.

It’s very cute, but it’s also very interesting. What is it about him that identifies so strongly with this superhero? I believe that children live in the realm of the imagination. They live from a place of complete freedom where there is no limitations. It’s innate. They live in the future. It’s how we are created to be.

I could easily write it off as stupid and a silly childhood dream, but maybe it’s more than that. Maybe on the inside of Levi, something in his spirit tells him he is going to be a hero. Maybe he is going to save lives, and change a bit of the world. If you look at it like that, aspiring to be Ironman isn’t really that silly. In fact, it’s wonderful.

As humans, we are a three part being. We live in a body, we have a soul and we are a spirit. Your body is your house. You need to look after it because it’s the only one you have. Your life is confined to it.

Think about relationships for a moment. Sometimes you see someone and there is a physical attraction, but when you get to know them, there is no synergy. They may be a lovely person, but you just don’t “connect”. This is purely a physical attraction.

Others you meet you might “click” with right away. Your initial connection may be based on common interests, opinions, beliefs, yet as time goes on, though you enjoy these people, you end up as just acquaintances. This is a soul attraction.

The spiritual attraction is different. You meet these people and there is just a resonance there. The conversation is positive and inspiring. You begin to talk about what you can do. You cannot be with these people and not be inspired, and you feel better just for being with them.

I believe this is a spiritual connection. You meet someone and already you see you begin to move into your destiny. They unlock the realm of the imagination again and you begin to see life without limitations.

You may even be in completely different stages of life, but you begin to see that it’s not what you ‘do’ but it’s what you carry. Someone recently explained this to me as “it’s the frequency you carry”.

You might be completely broke, but you keep connecting to or being drawn to people who are very successful, or millionaires. It’s because on the inside of you, that’s your true self. You carry the frequency of a millionaire. You just have to connect to that and learn to walk in it.

Maybe you are constantly drawn to strong leaders. You just continually seek them out. If this is the case perhaps you’re called to lead and to be an agent of change.

Children live in this place of endless possibility. As life goes on, we learn fear and we see limitations. We get stuck where we are.

Some people however have learnt to live in the future. I recently spoke to Jamie McIntyre. A businessman who in his twenties went from being heavily in debt and sleeping on a friends couch to being a self made millionaire.

What was it that caused him to succeed?

He had the ability to be in the situation, but know that it’s not where he was meant to be. He had to look to the future and work backwards.

In the natural realm we work forward from the present. In the realm of the spirit, we work backward from the end. In Isaiah 46:10 we see that He knows the end from the beginning. That’s how God works. He doesn’t worry to much about the day to day struggles, he sees our potential and where we are going.

Maybe you’ve been a little bit stuck and overwhelmed by limitations? I would encourage you do think about the true you. Who you be if there was no limitations. I would also encourage you to look and identify some great connections with the right people. You can be who you dream to be.

Recently I was listening to a man by the name of Mark Conner speak about the dynamics of leadership.

He asked the following two questions:

1. Who is the person that has been the biggest positive influence on your life?

2. Why did you choose that person?

Answers to the first question included parents, best friends, husbands, wives and sports coaches. It was the answer to the second question that got my attention.

What was it about these average people that made them such a powerful influence? The responses included many things such as, “they believed in me when no one else did”, “he was so generous”, “she lived for more than just herself”, “he was so selfless”, “he pushed me out of my comfort zone and never let me settle”.

It struck me.

The impact that these people made had very little to do with their skills and talents, but more to do with how they valued and treated others around them.

I believe that on the inside of each of us, there is a deep desire to make a difference, to be part of a positive change. However, often the only way we know how to go about it is by improving ourselves, and becoming more skilled. These things are extremely important, but at the end of the day it’s what we invest in others that will make the biggest change. Our skills and talents will die with us unless we use them to inspire and improve the lives of others.

The story of King George IV’s speech therapist Lionel Logue, made famous by the movie The King’s Speech, is a good example. In a time when Hitler was taking over Europe, the country’s King had died, his predecessor had abdicated and the heir to the throne suffered a severe stammer and the humiliation that came with it, an ordinary man like Logue had the potential to turn the situation around. Logue did not just help the King overcome his physical limitations, but also his inward limitations. Logue’s investment and belief in King George VI helped restore leadership to England and resist the Nazi threat. The King went from shying away from leadership and the public to regularly broadcasting wartime speeches that bolstered the spirits of a nation.

It’s amazing how the fate of a nation and its leaders largely rested on the shoulders of a common man with no official credentials. If Logue’s influence could make someone great, and that someone could go on to make a nation great, imagine where your investment in others could lead.

Leadership guru, John Maxwell says that “a leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others”. We may not ever become “great” by what we can achieve on our own, but by learning to inspire and work with others, we can together.

Not only will you win the hearts of others when you help them to achieve, but you empower someone to create a change and an impact that is beyond yourself. Now, that’s powerful!

In closing, I would like to encourage you to ask yourself these questions:
Who has been the biggest positive influence in my life?

In life we are put in many situations where we are under leadership. Be it at school, university or in our jobs, at some stage we have to listen to others and follow orders.

As soon as people are put in positions of leadership over us their values, motives and character become very apparent. That however raises a question: what would people see if we were the ones in leadership positions? How would we treat those under our leadership? Can we look inside ourselves and reflect upon our own motives? I believe our motives point towards our values and character.

Inside each of us is a desire to succeed, to lead, and to influence change.This is an extremely good thing, but what is our motive?

Is it purely self elevation or is it to bring out the best in others and to positively make an impact in society?

George Washington Carver observed, “How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.”

This statement really highlights the power of perspective. Success brings many things; influence, wealth and privilege. What we do with these things is a strong indication of our motive. The state of our true character becomes so obvious.

We can use our position to either gratify ourselves, or to positively affect others.

In some cases even the quality of someone else’s future can be dependant on our treatment of them. In our relationships, both personal and professional, do we encourage and build up, or criticise and pull down?
It’s a good thing to stop and think about because the way we treat people is a direct reflection of the value we place on others.

In John Maxwell’s book Developing the Leaders Around You he talks about how true leaders raise leaders. True leaders help others reach their full potential. I would encourage you to look inside yourself and ask: “What is my perspective of others? What motivates me? What can I do to help someone else succeed?”